DAVID MORLEY takes a look at Kia's compact people mover, the Carens.

Kia Carens

DAVID MORLEY takes a look at Kia's compact people mover, the Carens.

Kia Carens

Seven seats for those on a budget

Korean car maker Kia once had visions of itself as a mass-market player in Australia. That meant a model for just about every market segment.

OK, so Kia is yet to crack the sports-car market, but it does have a portfolio ranging from small cars to light trucks and vans.

Somewhere in between those two extremes falls the company's compact people mover, the Carens.

It's a sector that has grown in recent years, led by Holden's Zafira and Mazda's Premacy, and includes the less-successful Daihatsu Pyzar.

Its claim to fame, however, was that when the $24,990 Carens was launched in 2000, it was Australia's cheapest seven-seater.

What many did not know was that much of the Carens' platform and mechanical set-up were shared with Kia's five-door hatch, the Mentor.

Anyone who has seen one will know the 1.8-litre, four-cylinder Mentor is not a huge car, so the Carens was never going to be as big inside as, for example, a V6-powered Hyundai Trajet or even Kia's own Carnival.

But the Carens was the right size for a lot of families that could live with the lack of space, and without the V6 fuel bills.

The catch is that the Carens is not going to do the job for some families.

The rear-most row of seats accommodates two passengers, as long as they're both small. Adults should cope in any of the other seats, and there's even decent leg room in the middle row.

The centre row splits 50/50, and has two cup holders and fold-down tables at the back of it. Its one-piece seat base, which has only a lap belt in the middle, slides forward for easy access to the rear row.

Headroom is good, thanks to the boxy, upright styling. The interior shows some thought went into who would use it and how, with lots of cubbyholes, door pockets and seat-back pockets, and even a plastic box under the luggage area's floor for wet things.

The biggest problem with the Carens - and many of its competitors - is the limited luggage space when all the seats are in use. And if you're tall, watch out for the head-height tailgate when it's open.

The Carens also lacked a release on the tailgate. To open it you either needed the key or the remote release near the driver's seat.

Standard equipment was lean, but there were power windows, central locking (but no remote) and a CD player.

Safety was underdone, given the Carens' family-car pretensions. A driver's airbag was fitted but there was none for the passenger. Nor were there seatbelt pretensioners or, most glaring of all, anti-lock brakes as standard.

The Carens' performance depends on its load.

It accelerates adequately with just the driver on board, thanks to its 81 kW engine, but will struggle at highway speeds with all seats occupied.

Because of this, the five-speed manual is the better performer, but the four-speed automatic has a column-mounted shifter that yields more interior space.

Handling is typical for a tall front-wheel-drive vehicle, with plenty of body roll and a tendency to want to run wide if pushed too hard into a corner.

For all that, there's none of the traditional pay-off of a plush ride, and the Carens can feel unsophisticated over rough surfaces. But no one ever bought a vehicle such as the Carens for driving enjoyment.

Unfortunately for Kia, most buyers figured bigger was better and elected to spend the extra cash on the Carens' big brother, the Carnival, and the Carens disappeared from showrooms after just 18 months on the market.

But as a way to move seven people, it still stands as some kind of bargain.

What to Pay

You wouldn't want to spend more than about $11,000-$12,000 for even the best Carens around.

Bargains will come from private sellers wondering if they'll ever unload the thing. Haggle mercilessly and you might be surprised at the price.

The Competition

Daihatsu's Pyzar is also big on the inside and small on the outside but seats just five. Like the Carens, it was a sales flop but hung on grimly for a few years.

Owners will disagree with the market's lack of interest. Mazda's Premacy is probably the pick of them, along with the Holden Zafira, but they are worth a lot more money.